Released last week and piggybacking on a classified report provided to Congress on Halloween, the GAO analysis determined that between fiscal years 2008 and 2018, the Navy’s attack submarines incurred 10,363 days of idle time and maintenance delays because they can’t get into or out of repair shipyards.

GAO investigators pointed to the poster child of the Navy’s fast-attack sub readiness woes, the Boise.

Originally slated to enter an extended maintenance availability in 2013, heavy shipyard workload forced the Navy to delay the start of repairs. By mid-2016, the Los Angeles-class submarine could no longer conduct normal operations and then languished pierside for two years.

To GAO, the Boise is a symbol for deeper maintenance problems within the service.

The Navy spends about $9 billion to operate and sustain a fleet of 51 stealthy and silent nuclear-powered Los Angeles-, Seawolf- and Virginia-class boats that, in the event of a war, would be tasked with hunting enemy warships and submarines, collecting intelligence and surveillance, striking targets on land and inserting special operations forces.

Over the past decade, however, the Navy spent more than $1.5 billion to support attack subs that provided no operational capability, despite the increasing demands of combatant commanders worldwide for their services.

“While the Navy would incur these costs regardless of whether the submarine was delayed, idled, or deployed, our estimate of $1.5 billion represents costs incurred from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2018 for attack submarines without receiving any operational capability in return,” GAO determined. “While acknowledging the magnitude of these costs, Navy officials stated that there may be some benefits that could be realized from these operating and support costs since crews on idle attack submarines can conduct some limited training.”

GAO investigators cited 14 attack subs that combined to spend 61 months — 1,891 days — idling while waiting to enter shipyards for repairs. Delays inside the yards compound the total length of delays boats can face, too.

The most expensive costs were associated with the Seawolf-class boats. GAO estimated that each day one sat idle cost the American taxpayer $205,705.

While GAO credited the Navy with efforts to address the chronic problems with workforce shortages at public depots —Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility— the investigators found that leaders still failed to effectively allocate maintenance periods among both public and private shipyards.

In fact, attack submarine maintenance delays have grown longer and boat idle times rose, according to GAO. That concerns lawmakers on Capitol Hill who fear lengthy idle times ripple across the fleet, affecting crew training and endangering morale.

GAO auditors determined that the primary drivers affecting the attack submarine maintenance problem were delays in completing the depot repairs. Of the 10,363 total days of lost time since 2008, for example, investigators estimated that 8,472 — or 82 percent — could be chalked up to public depot maintenance delays alone.

Although the Navy could make better use of manufacturing and repair yards run by General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries-Newport News Shipbuilding to mitigate these problems, the brass have yet to complete a comprehensive business case analysis that follows Pentagon guidelines designed to allocate work between the two types of yards, GAO determined.

Private shipyard executives told GAO that they have available capacity to increase repair work over the next five years and the Navy shifted about 8 million man-hours in boat maintenance to them over the previous five years, but “it has done so sporadically,” GAO found.

Private sector officials told investigators that those sporadic shifts in workload “resulted in repair workload gaps that have disrupted private shipyard workforce, performance, and capital investment — creating costs that are ultimately borne in part by the Navy,” according to the report.

Because the Navy’s underwater force puts a premium on safety, officials refuse to compromise on submarine training and maintenance standards.

Citing the SUBSAFE program, Navy leaders will delay deployments to ensure standards are met. That means readiness remains high and boats are in excellent condition compared to the rest of the Navy’s fleet of warships, commanding officers told GAO investigators.

While Navy reforms continue, they will take a long time to solve the problems GAO identified in the report.

Public shipyards continue to try to hire new workers to address workforce shortages, hiking the pool of civilian employees from 25,087 in 2007 to 34,160 in 2017. But the goal remains 36,100 workers by 2020 and Navy leaders acknowledge that the employees will remain largely inexperienced and require a long stretch of time to achieve full proficiency, according to the report.

The Navy issued a blueprint to plan public shipyard capital investments but GAO determined in late 2017 that the service conceded it won’t be able to support 50 planned submarine maintenance periods over the next 23 years, thanks to capacity and capability shortfalls at the yards.

The Navy responded with a shipyard optimization plan with an estimated $21 billion in planned investment over the next two decades to meet the operational needs of the current underwater fleet, but failed to include the larger fleet planned for the future, according to GAO.

During a Thanksgiving conference call with Navy Times and the U.S. Naval Institute, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said that there “were no surprises in that report.”

“Every bit of information in that is information that we’re very, very aware of,” said Richardson, a career submariner. “We’ve been talking about the maintenance issues in public shipyards for some time so there were no surprises there.”

Richardson pointed to a looming “declining force level” that involves decommissioning some boats while awaiting the production of new fast-attack submarines.

He said that the Navy’s leadership remained focused on the problem and pledged that they “would continue to adapt,” including “taking advantage of all the maintenance capacity we have in the public and private sectors” to “optimize our way through these challenges.”

Unsealed indictments allege that Capt. David W. Haas, 50, took at least $145,000 in bribes from Leonard Glenn “Fat Leonard” Francis, the Malaysian tycoon and defense contractor who since his late 2013 arrest in a San Diego sting has ratted out a string of corrupt sailors who steered ships to his port services.

The portly Francis plied commanders and other key figures with cash, “Thai SEAL team” prostitutes, luxury resort rooms and other perks in order to bilk $35 million from American taxpayers.

Prosecutors have charged 32 defendants and 20 have pleaded guilty to public corruption charges over the past five years.

Separate indictments released Friday targeted retired Master Chief Petty Officer Ricarte Icmat David, 61, and retired Chief Petty Officer Brooks Alonzo Parks for allegedly taking other perks from Francis.

All three defendants allegedly traded on their rank and influence within the Navy to pay bloated invoices submitted by the now defunct company Francis led, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, and steer ships to ports it controlled or otherwise assist Fat Leonard by leaking internal military records on his commercial competitors, among other favors.

Criminal defense attorney Jeremiah J. Sullivan, III, told Navy Times that Haas will surrender voluntarily to federal agents on Aug. 30 in San Diego.

Haas currently lives in Kailua, Hawaii.

“He is innocent and will be prepared to litigate his case in a court of law,” said Sullivan, who also represented convicted Lt. Cmdr. Todd Dale Malaki.

Released from prison on March 28, Malaki, 47, swapped classified Navy ship schedules and other sensitive information to Francis for cash, hotel rooms and prostitution services, the same allegations now dogging Haas.

In 2011 Francis met Haas in Tokyo, feting the director of Maritime Operations for the Japan-based 7th Fleet at the Ritz Carlton and plying him and others with prostitutes at a cost of more than $20,000, according to the grand jury documents.

At around the same time, Francis was throwing a “50th birthday” party for the wives of Haas and others, court records indicate.

The next year, Francis allegedly spent more than $75,000 buying Haas and his Navy cronies lavish hotel rooms, top-shelf booze and prostitutes at a luxury resort in Indonesia.

In late 2012, the grand jury determined that Francis brought Haas and his co-conspirator, Cmdr. Michael Misiewicz, back to the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo.

Serving a sentence of more than six years at the federal penitentiary in Lompoc, California, Misiewicz slid Francis a dossier containing classified 7th Fleet ship schedules and other documents that included information about ballistic missile operations in the Western Pacific Ocean.

Prosecutors now say that Haas was in the room when he did it. Francis, Haas and Misiewicz then allegedly scanned a Navy organizational chart to pick potential heirs to their corrupt empire when Misiewicz returned to the United States from the 7th Fleet in late 2012.

The grand jury in San Diego also determined that Haas allegedly ordered Misiewicz to email Francis an internal Navy message outlining the upcoming port visit to Manila by the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald.

But that was far from all, according to federal court records.

Francis allegedly bought Haas prostitutes in Malaysia in 2013 when the 7th Fleet’s flagship, the Blue Ridge, pulled into Port Klang. And Fat Leonard always had more prostitutes ready for the captain in South Korea, Singapore and Sydney, prosecutors say.

On June 24, 2013, Francis sent an email to his staffers, telling them about an upcoming port visit by the George Washington Carrier Strike Group to Malaysia. For that services proposal, he added, they should “screw them nicely.”

Prosecutors allege the fix was in because Francis already knew “my brother Capt Dave Haas” had rigged the port call through the Pacific Fleet commander as “(h)is farewell present to me” before the captain rotated back to San Diego.

After the arrest of Francis in late 2013, the brass removed Haas, a Naval Academy graduate, from command of San Diego-based Coastal Riverine Group 1. He previously had commanded the guided-missile frigate Thach.

Because he wasn’t indicted, however, the Navy allowed him to retire with his rank.

Far below Haas in rank, Master Chief Petty Officer David, 61, also was crooked, prosecutors contend.

David held key logistics positions between 2001 and 2010 in the Western Pacific, including posts at the Fleet Industrial Supply Center in Yokosuka, Japan and aboard the amphibious warship Essex and the aircraft carriers Kitty Hawk and George Washington.

When the Essex pulled into Hong Kong in late 2005, Francis allegedly handed David $15,000 in cash so that the senior enlisted leader would approve inflated invoices, according to the charge sheets. David later allegedly emailed Francis thanks for the “wonderful Christmas present.”

David allegedly emailed Francis again in early 2006, asking to see if they could “make some business again just like we did in Hong Kong” because he needed “some cash before I retire,” prosecutors allege.

In other correspondence, David would identify himself as “Bad Boy” — the sort of master chief who would let bogus invoices for water, trash, force protection and other services get paid — and Francis as “Boss.”

David’s motives for the graft included the need for money to build a retirement home in the Philippines, prosecutors say. That’s why he allegedly took another $15,000 cash bribe from Fat Leonard in 2009, according to the indictment.

Investigators calculate that Francis paid David a total of $40,000 in cash. In exchange, David allegedly leaked Fat Leonard classified information and internal data about his business competitors and sided with him in contract disputes involving the Navy, prosecutors allege.

The third indictment takes aim at Chief Petty Officer Parks, 46, a former logistics lead petty officer for the 7th Fleet; an assessor and instructor at the Afloat Training Group, Western Pacific; and until his early 2016 retirement a material and supply lead petty officer at Naval Supply Systems Command in Naples, Italy, where he currently lives.

On June 20, 2006, Parks allegedly emailed an executive at Glenn Defense Marine Asia to arrange for a hotel suite while he was on liberty, writing, “It feels good living like a KING on an E-6′s salary!!!”

That began a string of Fat Leonard payments for luxury hotel stays for Parks and other unidentified enlisted sailors or a female guest in Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur — with rooms ranging in price from $3,000 to $4,000 per night, according to the indictment.

On April 3, 2007, Parks informed Glenn Defense Marine Asia that he would assist on processing an invoice and noting the Navy would “take care of this immediately,” prosecutors allege.

The next day, Parks told the company that he’d been bitten by the “Glenn Bug man” and assured them that “I’ve got your back like you’ve got mine,” according to the indictment.

Parks then leaked Glenn Defense Marine Asia details on the Blue Ridge supply needs in the Philippines and competitor information about another ship’s port visit to Cebu. He also allegedly slid the company ship movement information for the guided-missile destroyers Paul Hamilton and Stethem.

Attempts by Navy Times to reach Parks were unsuccessful and it remains unclear if he has retained legal counsel.

“The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it,” Trump said Friday morning on Twitter. “When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, (and) go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of (World War I), on November 11th. Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters! “

It’s unclear how many fighters really could be purchased for the price of the president’s parade. Pentagon sources told reporters Thursday that the procession’s price tag had ballooned to $92 million, only $2.3 million less than the cost for delivery of one F-35A Lightning II fighter for the Air Force.

A Block III F/A-18E/F Super Hornet purchased for the Navy between next year and 2023 is about $83.6 million.

Trump’s words also didn’t square with the projections of Pentagon planners. They pegged the price for military aircraft flyovers, personnel and other support services for the Nov. 10 celebration at $50 million.

Non-military agencies would need an additional $42 million for other expenditures, mostly security along a parade route winding from the the White House to the Capitol.

Washington, D.C.’s security and support costs comprised less than a quarter of the total bill, according to the mayor.

“Yup, I’m Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington DC, the local politician who finally got (through) to the reality star in the White House with the realities ($21.6M) of parades/events/demonstrations in Trump America (sad),” she wrote in a tweet taunting Trump.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis, a retired Marine four-star general, had defended the parade by saying it arose from Trump’s genuine affection for the armed forces.

Traveling with reporters in Bogota, Colombia on Friday, he said the Pentagon source who leaked the prices to the press was “probably smoking something that is legal in my state but not in most.”

Mattis is from the state of Washington, where recreational use of marijuana is legal.

“I’m not dignifying that number ($92 million) with a reply,” he added. “I would discount that, and anybody who said (that number), I’ll almost guarantee you one thing: They probably said, ‘I need to stay anonymous.’ No kidding, because you look like an idiot. And No. 2, whoever wrote it needs to get better sources. I’ll just leave it at that.”

Regardless of the cost, troops in all the services privately grumbled about being dragooned to march in a procession during what traditionally has been a four-day weekend away from their military duties.

Critics also had lambasted the administration for spending tens of millions of dollars on the November spectacle after Trump canceled military maneuvers with South Korea partly because they would cost “a tremendous amount of money,” a sum the military later estimated at $14 million.

Others had questioned whether the procession would resemble the military marches favored by dictators such as North Korea’s strongman Kim Jong Un, who told Trump during nuclear talks that he considered America’s war games with Seoul to be provocative.

But supporters of Trump’s parade pointed to similar celebrations in democracies such as France’s Bastille Day procession.

Eyeing Paris, Trump had said that his administration was “going to have to try and top it” in November.

Although the American Legion and the left-leaning Vote Vets organization praised the White House and Pentagon decision to postpone the parade, most groups serving veterans remained quiet during the controversy.

The ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, piled on.

“Halting this costly idea is the right call. It would have diverted resources and manpower from core missions,” said Reed, a former U.S. Army Ranger, in a written statement emailed to Military Times.

“I know President Trump really wants to lead a big military parade past his D.C. hotel, but a real leader wouldn’t put his own wishes above what’s best for our troops. Spending $100 million on this parade is beyond wasteful. Defense dollars would be better spent equipping our troops, caring for veterans, and enhancing national security.

“The best way to honor our troops is to provide them with the resources they need and a strategy that is worthy of their sacrifice. This parade was more about President Trump’s whims than what’s best for our troops. Our military has enough duties and responsibilities on their plates already.

“Democrats and Republicans must work together to ensure every tax dollar is wisely invested. I will continue demanding answers about the costs and potential impacts of this parade. It won’t go forward without careful analysis and cost justification.

“If the President wants to honor our troops he can start with a simple, heartfelt thankyou to those brave men and women who serve. That doesn’t cost a cent.”

Reed has urged the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the costs of the parade.